• No clear winner : Israel’s official vote count is now underway. With more than 60% counted, Israel is facing potential political deadlock , with neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his main rival, ex-military chief Gadi Eisenkot, within reach of the 61 seats needed for a governing majority in the 120-seat parliament, the Knesset.
• Path to power: It’ll take several days to finalize the vote count. The current projections have Netanyahu’s bloc taking 55 seats, a drop from the 68-seat coalition he led in the outgoing Knesset. His Likud party is still set to be the largest single party.
• Complicated route: Parties opposed to Netanyahu have a clear majority, on course for about 65 seats, according to the latest projections. But they are fractured and divided between right, left and center. If they hope to oust Netanyahu, they will likely have to cooperate with the Arab parties , whose voter base saw record turnout.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s principal opponent in the elections is a relative newcomer to politics. Instead, one of his key electoral advantages boils down to a simple truth: He is not Netanyahu.
Gadi Eisenkot, 66, has spent most of his life in the Israeli military, enlisting in the Golani Brigade in 1978 and rising over a 40-year career to become chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, serving under Netanyahu.
He entered politics in 2022 alongside another former chief of staff, Benny Gantz. After the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, the two joined Netanyahu’s emergency war cabinet. But they left in June 2024, pointing to the absence of a clear post-war strategy.
Eisenkot is the second of nine children and a father of five. His youngest son, Gal, 25, was killed fighting in Gaza two months into the war.
He has placed that singular promise at the heart of his political mission.
You can read more about the opposition’s strongest candidate here.
US President Donald Trump said early Wednesday he hadn’t yet spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but seemed optimistic about his performance in the election as the vote count is underway.
Just over a week before the polls opened in Israel, Trump called Netanyahu a “Great Warrior Prime Minister” in a Truth Social post, offering his “Complete and Total Endorsement.”
Exit polls so far suggest Netanyahu’s bloc lost its majority in the Knesset — though it is narrowly in the lead over the opposition. Trump suggested that the exit polls might be wrong, however.
“He might be winning, or tied,” he said. “It’s a little bit early, but I’m hearing that in Israel, top people are saying, ‘Wow,’ he did a lot better than people thought.”
The final result could be “a stalemate or a win – but we’ll find out,” he added.
Supporters of Israel’s Arab Joint List party celebrated at its election headquarters in Nazareth, with Arab parties projected to gain a record number of seats from Tuesday’s election.
Party leader Yousef Jabareen commended a strong turnout among the community, saying it was “unprecedented and historic in our Arab society.” Arab voters make up about 20% of the Israeli electorate, but have traditionally voted at lower rates than Jewish Israelis.
That voter surge was driven by an urgent desire to dismantle Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, which includes hardline ministers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
That sentiment was underscored by chants of “Ben-Gvir, go home” at the Joint List election headquarters.
Jabareen said exit polls showed Arab-led parties can “make a difference.”
He vowed to be a “safety net in the face of crime in our society, a safety net in the face of dangerous racism, a safety net in the face of the demolition of homes and entire villages.”
Some context: Entering government could still be tricky for Arab parties. Between them, the Joint List and Raam are projected to secure 17-19 seats in the 120-seat Knessett, their strongest showing in history.
Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party is projected to win 21-23 seats.
However, Eisenkot has set conditions for any partner to join his government, including recognizing Israel as a Jewish state and recognizing Hamas as a terrorist organization that must be dismantled, terms most Arab lawmakers are unlikely to accept.
Moreover, two of his opposition allies – Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett – have ruled out forming a government with the Arab parties altogether.
CNN’s Abeer Salman and Kara Fox contributed reporting.
It’s now Wednesday morning in Israel, and the election – one of the most consequential in years – is over. Next begins the real work of counting votes and forming a government.
It’ll take several days to finalize the vote count, but exit polls indicate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party has taken a blow – though there’s not yet a clear winner with an outright majority.
Israel’s elections produced no clear winner Tuesday night, exit polls showed, with neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his main rival Gadi Eisenkot within reach of the 61 seats needed for a governing majority in the 120-seat parliament, the Knesset. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.
